SABLE LOCCI / NEVER, EVER BELIEVE YOU DESERVE LESS THAN THE WORLD

"When you #SpeakUp, you never know who's listening, so please, please speak up. The possibilities are endless when you do! You're not alone, I am here with you. I stand with and for you, always."

Sable Locci shares #HerStory:

"It seems kind of weird to say, to think about even, but I believe my worst experience in the foster care system was having social workers, courts, etc. not recognize how troubled I was. I'd always been a real academic kid who loved school and excelled. I participated in honors programs and attended magnet schools my whole life and none of that changed when I went into out-of-home care. I was still an honors student, even though I lived in over ten houses in a twelve-month period and changed schools many times. I believe that because I was able to perform outwardly as I always had, that many assumed I was okay when I wasn't. I was twelve and alone and very, very scared and I naturally immersed myself in things that remained familiar--school was familiar--and excelling in school was familiar. I struggled having been separated from not only my parents, but my siblings as well.

When I was emancipating from the system, I needed guidance, love, a real advocate and mentor.

Additionally, even still in my adult life I struggle with my experiences in foster care and sometimes I think that's the worst experience of them all; that the experience in and of itself never really leaves you.

The foster care system taught me to be innovative in the way I think. It taught me to survive, really. Not in just the ways you need to maintain physical and tangible things to live, but to really survive through emotional and psychological turmoil.

I have always been kind, thoughtful, and compassionate, but I feel like the foster care system taught me that I could still be these things even when life might not have felt as kind, thoughtful, and compassionate in regards to me.

Stay strong--even when it feels like you have not an ounce of strength left in you. Use the innovative ways of thinking that being a part of the system sort of forces you to have and magnify it. You will be able to do and say so much because your story and journey built you up even when it tried to tear you down. Never, ever believe you deserve less than the world--because you didn't make it so far to struggle."